Page 9 - Shalom: The Peace That Comes From Being Whole

We now come to the central theme of all word
building in Hebrew; it is the central rhythm
of the whole, vast, far-flung structure of the
Hebrew language.
This is it:
Practically all words in Hebrew go back to a
root—and this root must have in it three con-
sonants. You can do anything you want to the
root: you can use it in any verb form or tense,
you can turn it into any one of ten or twenty
or more nouns. You can make it an adjective,
adverb, preposition, or what you will..... No
matter what you do you will always see staring you
in the face the three consonants of the root. You can
never escape them.
And equally important:
No matter what you do with the root, no
matter into what word you turn it—that word
must carry in it something of the meaning
of the root. This is the irresistible logic of all
word-building in Hebrew. It is by far the most
important and most fundamental law of the
Hebrew language. 2
This is so important to the understanding of
the Hebrew word shalom, that I would recom-
mend you go back and read again the above
quotation.

_________
1 Edward Horowitz, How the Hebrew Language Grew, KATV
Publishing House 1960
2 Ibid. p 22
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